Entertainment
Who is Hargobind Tahilramani? What did he do?
That would make quite a scenario. A global con artist lures hopeful actors, photographers, filmmakers, screenwriters and makeup artists from around the world by posing as Hollywood's elite. Posing as Amy Pascal, former Sony executive, or as producer Wendi Murdoch, as director Doug Liman, or as Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures, the scammer penetrated the wallets of hundreds of victims and inflicted on them psychological anguish.
Hargobind Tahilramani's nearly decade-long deceptions and his downfall after his arrest in 2020 are chronicled in Hollywood Con Queen, a three-part documentary series now streaming on Apple TV+. Tahilramani poses as powerful Hollywood executives (most often women) and lures his victims with job offers, asking some to travel abroad at their own expense. But none of these promised concerts actually materialized.
Filmmaker Will Strathmann received an email, purportedly from Pascal, in 2017, asking him to fly to Jakarta, Indonesia, to capture footage that would be presented to Netflix for a series. He paid for a trip from his home in Denver, hoping to be reimbursed, and was forced to return two more times for additional footage. Total cost: $54,452.
Tahilramani was the subject of a 2018 Hollywood Reporter article by journalist Scott Johnson who appears in the docuseries and later wrote a book about Tahilramani. The two men talked every day for weeks, Johnson said, but he didn't know if Tahilramani was telling the truth or if he, too, was being defrauded.
At every turn, it was like being in a maze, Johnson told USA TODAY, in an interview that also included director Chris Smith and private investigator Nicole Kotsianas, who features in the docuseries. Every moment you would be led down a different aisle, a different corner of this quite tortured but very interesting mind. And it's a bit like a hall of mirrors.
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The complexity, Johnson says, kept bringing me back.
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An exclusive extract from “Hollywood Con Queen”
What motivated Hargobind Tahilramani, the Hollywood Con Queen?
It's hard to know what fueled Tahilramani's scams, Johnson says, but he thinks Tahilramani may have initially wanted to be in show business.
When he failed, his frustration turned into something malignant: a desire for revenge or a desire to inflict some kind of pain on other people who were pursuing similar dreams, Johnson said. This scam, even if it is not always lucrative, allowed Tahilramani to show his ability to impersonate, convince and act.
I think these were all things that the impersonator wanted to find ways to exploit, and this scam provided that opportunity, Johnson says. And finally, and perhaps the most obscure area, we are probably talking about a person suffering from some sort of personality disorder. This is something that the people who analyzed this person concluded independently within a legal framework.
The hundreds of victims of Hollywood Con Queen
The Con Queen cheated at least 500 victims out of approximately $2 million, according to the docuseries.
For some, it was just a very bizarre experience that they had and for others, it was quite traumatic in their experience, depending on how much you invested, Smith said in an interview. Not financially, but simply in terms of time and emotional energy.
An actor thought he was communicating with Liman about a potential role. He was asked to attend a video conference, then take off his pants and touch himself. He refused and started shaking.
I felt really embarrassed that I lost $5,000, the actor said in the documentary series. But if they hadn't tried the sex stuff and taken me down that road in the end, they probably could have gotten more money from me.
Swindled money should not be overlooked, says Kotsianas. For some, “it was all they had, right where they were,” she says. “I was told that for some people it was their wedding money, for others it was down payments, for others it was money that They had borrowed from their family.
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Where is Hargobind Tahilramani now?
On June 6, 2023, a judge from UK rules Tahilramani can be extradited in the United States to be prosecuted for these crimes. But he remains in the UK and is fighting extradition.
While Tahilramani has expressed remorse for his inconveniences, Johnson questions whether that feeling is sincere.
Some of this remorse seemed real. Much of that hasn't been the case, Johnson says. Once again we return to the question of what is real and what is not. While he expressed remorse, from what we know, he still continued the scam, he adds. The answer may be there.
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